photo credit: Arkansas Athletics / Cincinnati Athletics
Smash That “Follow” Button
While Arkansas fans will have to wait another 10 days for the actual season to start, the Hoop Hogs will be facing a legitimate opponent in Bud Walton Arena for an exhibition game Friday night when Cincinnati comes to town.
The Bearcats have yet to make the NCAA Tournament in three seasons under head coach Wes Miller, but this year’s Cincy squad was picked to finish smack dab in the middle of the loaded Big 12.
Perhaps the most notable Cincinnati player this season is true freshman swingman Shon Abaev, a heralded recruit out of high school who was pursued by Arkansas, Auburn, USC and more.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native was a consensus top-30 prospect and a McDonald’s All-American. Abaev is the second-highest rated recruit to sign with Cincinnati in the 247Sports era, behind only longtime NBA player Lance Stephenson. The 6-foot-7, 195-pounder actually had a lot of interest in the Razorbacks out of high school.
“People were throwing him big, big money,” On3’s Joe Tipton said on the HawgBeat Half Hour podcast this week. “I think with Arkansas, he might have been one of those guys they waited a little bit too long to go in on, but I think if they would’ve made him a priority and made a really big push they would’ve had just as good a shot as anybody.”
Tipton said Abaev’s recruitment ended up coming down to Cincy and Arizona State, but Miller was able to secure his commitment on his final visit. Tipton called him a “big-time shot maker and a three-point sniper.”
“You watch him play and you’re like, ‘Oh gosh, this is a pro basketball player still in college,’” Tipton said. “You definitely have to go over the screen on that one and stay on him as close as possible because he can heat up quickly.”
Abaev’s performance against Arkansas’ blue-chip freshman, and the Razorback squad as whole, will be a central storyline to monitor heading into Friday’s exhibition clash.
What to Watch with Arkansas Basketball
There will be a few other key storylines to pay attention to as Arkansas builds on a Sweet 16 run, but none will be bigger than how John Calipari manages the guard rotation in his second season at the helm.
DJ Wagner stepped in as the clear cut leader and point guard of a team riddled with injuries last year. Despite having only six or seven healthy players for the majority of the season, he played a major role in the Razorbacks digging out of their 0-5 start to SEC play and eventually reaching the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Including a year together at Kentucky, this will be his third season with Calipari. He knows the system. He knows what it takes to win in the SEC. He knows how to lead the Razorbacks.
But that doesn’t mean incoming five star freshman Darius Acuff won’t get his chance to shine as a lead ball handler at some point in this contest. Exhibitions are the perfect time to test lineups and roles that a coach has in mind for a player – as well as an audition of sorts for the players.
Acuff has the potential to be the best freshman in the SEC this season, and if he lives up to that hype, it will be hard to take the ball out of his hands. How Calipari manages that – not to mention fellow five-star combo guard Meleek Thomas and a few other wings who could eat into some guard minutes – will dictate exactly how good the Hogs are this season.
The frontcourt for the Razorbacks provides perhaps fewer question marks in terms of minutes, roles and expectations. It seems likely that Malique Ewin will be the starter at center alongside returner Trevon Brazile at the 4.
Nick Pringle is a highly experienced, ego-free type of big man who will get his fair share of minutes both at center and perhaps alongside Ewin at times. The minutes distribution between these three players is likely to be spread somewhat evenly and fluctuate based on matchups, but there is no “will they, won’t they” like there is with ball handling, playmaking and scoring responsibilities in the Arkansas backcourt.
Scouting Cincinnati Basketball
The Razorbacks’ new-look backcourt won’t have an easy go of things in its first tune up game.
Fresh off a road upset of preseason No. 7 Michigan, Cincinnati will bring an extremely experienced team to Bud Walton Arena – one with a lot of firepower in that area.
Of the six Bearcats who scored in double figures against the Wolverines, four of them were guard-capable players.
The aforementioned Shon Abaev led Cincinnati’s initial charge, pouring in 11 of his 15 points before halftime of his first collegiate action. Standing at 6-foot-7, his frame and quickness will make him a tough player to match up with for the Hogs, likely drawing the defensive focus of Karter Knox, Billy Richmond or Meleek Thomas.
Kerr Kriisa also contributed 15 points in his first outing as a Bearcat. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because Kriisa was the fiery backup point guard at Kentucky last year before going down with a season-ending injury just nine games into the season.
Between 4.5 seasons of college and time spent playing internationally, Kriisa is arguably the most experienced guard in all of college basketball. He hasn’t been drafted into the NBA due in part to his physical limitations, but that won’t stop him from hounding both DJ Wagner and Darius Acuff for 94 feet on Friday night.
The other two guards that helped Cincy beat Michigan were Sencire Harris (6-foot-4) and Day Day Thomas (6-foot-0), who scored 13 and 12, respectively.
Harris turned in a complete performance, adding five rebounds, four assists and a whopping five steals to prove he can be a menace on the defensive side of the ball.
With Tyler McKinley suffering a season-ending injury in September and redshirting, Thomas is the only returner who actually played for the Bearcats last season. The fifth-year senior will be suiting up for what will be his third consecutive season with Cincinnati after averaging 10.3 points, 3.0 assists and 2.5 rebounds over the last two years. His veteran leadership and on-court versatility adds to a dangerous backcourt.
Cincinnati’s other two players to reach double figures in its first exhibition were 7-foot-2 Mustapha Thiam and 6-foot-11 Baba Miller.
Thiam was among the national leaders in blocks per game as a freshman last year for UCF, and he’ll certainly pose an interesting matchup for Arkansas’ frontcourt. His 15 points in the exhibition game would have been among his highest scoring outputs a season ago, but he’s clearly capable of causing problems on both sides of the ball.
This should provide an interesting test of Malique Ewin’s skillset. Being able to handle and pass the ball so well from the center position makes the newest Razorback center a matchup nightmare, in theory, but whether or not he can make a game-changing impact against a high-level defender like Thiam will be a great barometer for the upcoming season.
Nick Pringle’s experience, size and rebounding prowess could become essential in this matchup if Thiam’s size proves to be a problem on the boards on either end of the court.
Miller, on the other hand, joins the Bearcats after averaging 11.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks at Florida Atlantic last season. Cincinnati will be his third team in four years, but his impact is sure to be felt, as evidenced by his 11 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists against Michigan.
As a team, the Bearcats have seven players who have combined for 544 career games at the DI level. This includes five of the six aforementioned high-scorers along with Jalen Haynes (6-foot-8), who has averaged 14-plus points in each of his last two seasons, and high-level utility forward Jalen Celestine (6-foot-7), who leads the team with 111 career games.
That doesn’t include Abaev or a pair of 20+ year old international wings in Lucas Atauri from Brazil and Jordi Rodriguez from Spain, both of whom are 20-plus years old.
The Hogs, by comparison, have a combined 392 games played amongst their top six non-freshmen. The biggest chunk of those belong to Pringle (117), while the other five average just 55 games.
Of course, this doesn’t include the pair of elite five-star freshmen itching to get on the court in the Hogs backcourt or fellow freshmen Isaiah Sealy and Elmir Džafić.
On paper, the Hogs have the more talented roster – arguably one of the most talented in the country – but they won’t be able to fully lean on their experience to carry them through the first live action of the season Friday night.
How to Watch Arkansas vs Cincinnati
Date: Friday, Oct. 24
Location: Bud Walton Arena (Fayetteville, Ark.)
Tipoff time (TV): 7 p.m. CT (SECN+)
Commentators: Brett Dolan (play-by-play), Joe Kleine (color analyst)
Odds/Betting Line: Arkansas, -7.5 | O/U 152.5 (BetSaracen)
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Freshman Darius Acuff Jr. previews Arkansas vs Cincinnati:
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